Month: May 2010

Well, it’s that difficult sec… er, third issue, and it looks like we’re just about done. I think it’s sent me slightly mental. I spent a lot of yesterday staring at pages thinking “perhaps changing the font will make it funnier”. And do you know what? In a couple of cases it did.

Interestingly, even though hardly anyone knows about it, and even less people actually have a copy, I’m feeling a slight pressure of expectation on this one. I was pretty pleased with the way #2 turned out: it was weird and (I hope) funny and it hit exactly the off-kilter vibe Hughes and I were after – that odd feeling I used to get as a kid reading the Monty Python and Goodies books. Particularly Python – I’d not seen the show or the films, but I knew they were supposed to be funny, and the books were, but they were also a bit disconcerting. It’s not something I can explain. It felt like I was immersing myself in a world that was 90 degrees to our own, and I guess a lot of the humour was going over my young head. But Gilliam’s art, and the weird photos of the cast, and the sense that there was no way of knowing what was going to be on the next page… I loved it but it was all a little disorientating. And we wanted Grass to befuddle in the same way, while also being about my jokes and Gus’ mad art. And, well…

That really is a lot of waffle for a photocopied pamphlet, but I’m proud of it.

My God this is beautiful. Steve Mason can sing a song that’s effortlessly mournful and anthemic and off-kilter all at once, and this may lack the rough edges and (yes!) ramshackle charm of the Beta Band or King Biscuit Time, which is a shame, but good grief when it kicks in halfway through… Swoon!